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Chael Sonnen says he saved ‘TUF Brazil 3′ by showing Wanderlei Silva his bank account
- Updated: May 24, 2016
The third season of The Ultimate Fighter Brazil was a bit of a mess. Filmed and aired in 2014, the show centered around the rivalry between coaches Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen, and it didn’t take long for things to spiral out of control. The two coaches infamously brawled midway through the season, then both were suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission once filming ended, as Silva fled a random drug test and Sonnen failed two tests of his own.
Still, the show introduced three notable Brazilian prospects to the Octagon — Warlley Alves, Antonio Carlos Junior, and Vitor Miranda, whose combined UFC record is 9-3 — so even though Sonnen and Silva never fought, TUF Brazil 3 ended up being a worthwhile endeavor. And according to Sonnen, it nearly crashed and burned before it began.
“I’ll tell you this, and you’ll think less of me,” Sonnen said Monday on The MMA Hour. “You’ll go, ‘well, you’re a dick for doing that.’ I get that I’m a dick for doing it, but I was in a dust-up with Wanderlei.
“We were in Brazil, and the first day of the filming of The Ultimate Fighter, he quit. He quit the whole show. He goes, ‘I’m done and I’m leaving.’ And that was real. They didn’t show very much of it, but it was a mess. We couldn’t leave the set. We had to get Wanderlei back, but we had Dana (White) on the phone. It was an absolute mess. We had Vitor (Belfort) on the phone, wondering, hey, if this guy really walks, will you get on a plane? It was that [bad]. We thought the show was over.”
The incident Sonnen is referencing happened in the second episode of the season. Footage showed Silva demanding an apology from Sonnen for all of the past slights the American had said about Brazil, and when Sonnen refused, Silva announced his intentions to leave the show.
Silva eventually returned, but Sonnen said on Monday that there was more to the Brazilian’s decision than what the cameras showed.
“So, I’m trying to be real with …
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